1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method adopted by the apparatus, an information processing program implementing the method and a recording medium for storing the program. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus suitable for cases in which information can be communicated among a plurality of apparatus and relates to an information processing method adopted by the apparatus, an information processing program implementing the method as well as a recording medium for storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, the user of an information processing apparatus selects typically a telephone or an email as means for contacting a desired partner. For example, the user makes a phone call to a desired partner by making use of dialer software or the IP telephone but fails because the partner is busy. In this case, the user ends the dialer software or the IP telephone. Instead, the user can invoke an email application in order to contact the desired partner. In this case, however, the user must invoke the email application manually.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-219046 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a technology whereby, if the user of an information processing apparatus enters the phone number of a desired partner by making use of the dialer software or the IP telephone in an attempt to contact the partner but fails because the partner is busy or if the user sends an email to the desired partner but the email is returned to the user, for example, the phone number or the address of the destination of the returned email is used as a key in a process to search applications for another application including the contact address of the partner with a registered connection and the other application including the contact address of the partner is automatically invoked.